POLICE are warning people to beware cold callers at their homes after an elderly man was burgled by bogus officials.

Two teenagers went to the 81-year-old's home in Holloway Field, Coundon, Coventry, between 1.40pm and 2pm on Wednesday and said they were there to fix the boiler.

The man let them in and when they left realised they had taken some of his belongings.

Both thieves were white, slim and aged about 17. One was about 5ft 10in tall, clean shaven and had short black hair.

The other was about 6ft tall and was wearing a white baseball cap and grey jumper.

Police said that about 30 minutes earlier a suspected bogus water official targeted an elderly woman who lives in Norfolk Street, Earlsdon.

Police praised the woman, who is believed to be in her 80s, for refusing to let the caller into her home.

* AN 80-year-old woman suffered a suspected broken finger after trying to stop bogus water officials stealing cash from her Nuneaton home.

She hid some cash up her sleeve as the two men stole about £600 from her lounge drawers in Vernons Lane at about 4.30pm on Wednesday.

But one of the men grabbed her and snatched the money back after a struggle, resulting in the woman sustaining a suspected broken finger.

Also in Nuneaton an elderly couple in Marlborough Road, Nuneaton, found £1,000 missing after a man said he needed to check their boiler at 4.45pm and a bogus worker targeted a 90-year-old man in Kingsbury.